My mother-in-law made this for every potluck from 1975 to 2010. Only 3 ingredients and people still ask for the recipe.

This is the kind of dish that showed up on every church basement buffet table from the mid-70s clear into the 2000s, usually in a well-worn glass baking dish with somebody’s name scratched on the bottom. My mother-in-law called it her “potluck chicken,” and I don’t think she ever came home with leftovers.

It’s only three ingredients, nothing fancy at all, but the way the sauce bakes down around the chicken makes a glossy, savory glaze with sticky, caramelized edges that people remember. It’s the recipe folks still ask me for at funerals, baby showers, and every small-town supper in between.